The Land of Fiction

Logophile. A strange and somewhat questionable term, but whose meaning describes so many. A lover of books. Yet, how does one become a “lover of books”? What qualifies a person to be one? Is it the young kid who waits up every night to hear one more bed story? Or is it the college student who is reading yet another chapter on their designated degree? Oh, I know. It is that elderly man who sits down at the breakfast table with the latest newspaper copy open in front of him? Are these people logophiles?

To become a "lover of books", one has to fall in love, right? Instead of being that little kid who wanted a bed story, I was the one who wanted to stay just 10 more minutes outside playing. Books were seen as things of wisdom that my parents would look at ocasionally. Nothing I as a child would. However, the day came when these "knowledge holders" became something else: forced learning. Oh, how the days would go so slow as I was forced to sit and look at words on a page while the sun was shinning. After suffering for six years, my outlook of books was the same if not worse. Until, I was left out of the fun school trip because I didn't earn enough points for reading those "forced learning knowledge holders".

With a vow of retribution, I began to partake of the "knowledge holders". However, this vow turned into a statement of retribution, then a half-hearted murmur. By forcing myself to read, I began to fall in love with what I was reading. So, what book broke through the border into the land of fiction? Eragon by Christopher Paolini stopped my young heart and sent it soaring with a dragon across Alagaesia. And over my many years of visiting Middle Earth, Hogwarts, The Capital and the like, I have fallen deeper and deeper in love with those "knowledge holders".

So, what makes a "lover of books"? A logophile is someone who cherishes the rectangular pieces of knowledge passed down from generation to generation. Someone who can't stop in the middle of a binge-reading just because the clock hit 10 o'clock. Someone who instantly calms down when in a room filled with books. Or who sees a comfy chair and just wants to read.